- Ukrainian soldiers raise a flag at the entrance to Lyman
- Lyman is a key logistics hub in eastern Donetsk region
- Donetsk is one of four regions that Putin says are now Russian
Kyiv, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Ukrainian forces reached the entrance to the eastern bastion of Lyman on Saturday after encircling thousands of Russian troops, Kyiv said, in a battlefield denial to the Kremlin a day later to proclaim that a strip of territory will be part of it. from Russia
Lyman’s capture would be a major setback for Russia after President Vladimir Putin proclaimed the annexation of the Donetsk region, along with three other regions, in a ceremony in Moscow on Friday condemned by Kyiv and the West as a farce.
Two smiling Ukrainian soldiers taped the yellow and blue national flag to the “Lyman” welcome board at the entrance to the city in northern Donetsk region, a video released by the president’s chief of staff showed.
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“October 1. We are unfurling our state flag and establishing it on our land. Lyman will be Ukraine,” said one of the soldiers, standing on the hood of a military vehicle.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern forces said Russia had between 5,000 and 5,500 troops in Lyman, but the number of encircled troops could be lower due to casualties.
“The Russian grouping in the Lyman area is surrounded,” the spokesman, Serhii Cherevatyi, said on television.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The last operational update from Russia was Friday evening. On Saturday, the ministry’s Telegram channel posted a series of congratulatory messages, including one from Putin, to mark a military holiday, Ground Forces Day.
LOGISTICS CENTER
Russia has used Lyman as a logistics and transportation hub for its operations in northern Donetsk region. Its fall would be Ukraine’s biggest battlefield gain since a lightning counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region last month.
The Ukrainian military spokesman said the capture of Lyman would allow Kyiv to advance toward the Luhansk region, the full capture of which Moscow announced in early July after weeks of slow and heavy-handed advances.
“Lyman is important because it is the next step towards the liberation of the Ukrainian Donbas. It is an opportunity to go further in Kreminna and Sievierodonetsk, and psychologically it is very important,” he said.
The Donetsk and Luhansk regions together make up the wider Donbas region that has been a major focus for Russia since shortly after Moscow’s February 24 invasion began.
Cherevatyi said the operation around Lyman is still ongoing and that Russian troops are making unsuccessful attempts to break out of the encirclement.
“Some are surrendering, they have many dead and wounded, but the operation is not over yet,” he said.
Ukraine’s exiled governor of Luhansk said Russian forces had asked for a safe exit from the encirclement, but Ukraine rejected the request.
Ukraine’s General Staff told Reuters it had no such information.
Putin declared the Donbas regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to be Russian soil at Friday’s ceremony, a swath of territory equal to 18 percent of Ukraine’s total area.
Ukraine and its Western allies called Russia’s move illegal. Kyiv vowed to continue liberating its land from Russian forces and said it would not hold peace talks with Moscow as long as Putin remained president.
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Editing by Frances Kerry and Gareth Jones
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